- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; (Reissue) edition (6 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006512267
- ISBN-13: 978-0006512264
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,215,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
‘Excellent Roman detailed background… a lively thriller whodunnit.’
OBSERVER
‘One of her best books for a long time… keeps us guessing most craftily.’
DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Superintendent Alleyn is as devastating as ever.’
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘Blackmail and drug-dealing on the Tiber… Fastidious writing, telling character sketches, a fine appreciation of place.’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘I have no doubt at all that this is the best detective novel you have ever written. It has everything, and will go very far.’
EDMUND CORK, Ngaio Marsh’s literary agent
Product Description
Murder, blackmail and drug-dealing on the Tiber combine in one of Ngaio Marsh’s liveliest and most evocative novels.
When their guide disappears mysteriously in the depths of a Roman Basilica, the members of Mr Sebastian Mailer’s tour group seem strangely unperturbed.
But when a body is discovered in an Etruscan sarcophagus, Superintendent Alleyn, in Rome incognito on the trail of an international drug racket, is very much concerned…
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are wanting to delve into the Golden Age of Detective fiction, do not make this book your starting point. Ngaio Marsh had certainly gone off the boil when she wrote it and while a late sixties view of Rome is of some interest, the hippy slang is quite painful and Alleyn himself, without either his side-kick, Fox, or his artist wife, Troy, lacks substance. The other characters are fairly cardboard, though the romance of Sophie Jason and Barnaby Grant the writer is appealling.
Rome, of course, is a fascinating background for any book but by itself it cannot carry the story.
Rome, of course, is a fascinating background for any book but by itself it cannot carry the story.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When in Rome is a very entertaining read but the Murder Mystery takes a back seat to the human drama. The story concerns a tour operator in Rome who arranges very exclusive tours of the Roman churches and cathedrals. 7 people go on one of these tours including Inspector Alleyn while there their host dissapears and later a body is discovered in a sarcophagus and its up to Alleyn to find out what happened. As he begins his investigation another body is discovered in the Church Well and one of the tour party is run down and killed.
It all sounds really good and it is a good read but the first body is not found until page 120 of a 224 page novel and a lot of the first few chapters are character building and go very slowly but it does build to a good ending and all in all is a good read but not her best by a long shot.
It all sounds really good and it is a good read but the first body is not found until page 120 of a 224 page novel and a lot of the first few chapters are character building and go very slowly but it does build to a good ending and all in all is a good read but not her best by a long shot.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
As addictive as any drug
13 Jun 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
From the first Ngaio Marsh book I read (_Death in a White Tie_)I was hooked. Now, reading my fourth Marsh novel, _When in Rome_, I can say that I like her even better than Agatha Christie. _When in Rome_ is about a group of tourists (incl. the famous Inspector Alleyn) whose guide suddenly disappears. Only Inspector Alleyn, who joined the tour because he suspects that the guide is a key member of a drug ring, is worried about his disappearance; most of the tour group couldn't care less. In fact, a few of them couldn't be happier that the seedy Mr. Mailer has conveniently vanished.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
It is time to compare Christie to Marsh
13 Nov 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Having read all of Agatha Christies novels I never thought that I would find an author comparable to her. Yet, after reading most of the Ngaio Marsh books I believe it is time to start comparing Agatha Christie to Ngaio Marsh. A great example of this can be found in When in Rome. In this book, Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn gets himself involved in a guided tour in an old church site in Rome. When the rather disrepeptable tour guide vanishes and a murder in unearthed in the underground portion of the old church, Alleyn finds himself in the thick of it. Together with the Italian Police, Alleyn trys to sort out the possible suspects. Marsh is at her very best as she takes the reader on a magical mystery tour of Rome. As always, her character descriptions are flawless and the plot moves along in rapid fashion. This book is on a par with Grave Mistake and many of her others. A great read and a superb mystery. Ngaio Marsh is can well be considered one of the best Brittish authors of the century.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Entertaining enough, but not the top of her game.
5 Jan 2007
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This late (1970) Marsh book is worthwhile reading for Marsh fans. Unfortunately, it does not compare well to some of the more classic Alleyn books from earlier in her career. Marsh was at her best writing about earlier days. Her misunderstandings and often (unintentionally) comic view of youth culture during the late 1960s/early 1970s is one of the unfortunate hallmarks of this period in her writing.
In When in Rome, Alleyn registers for a tour incognito to try to crack a drug and blackmailing ring run by a thoroughly unpleasant fellow. When the fellow in question turns up dead, he and his fellow tourists have a great deal of thinking to do about guilt and innocence.
Truthfully, this is probably a three star book. I gave it four stars because of the extra Ngaio Marsh spark which can make even a tedious book worth the time to read. Recommended, as I said, for Marsh fans. Readers new to her work should choose one of the novels from the 1930s through 1950 as a first experience.
In When in Rome, Alleyn registers for a tour incognito to try to crack a drug and blackmailing ring run by a thoroughly unpleasant fellow. When the fellow in question turns up dead, he and his fellow tourists have a great deal of thinking to do about guilt and innocence.
Truthfully, this is probably a three star book. I gave it four stars because of the extra Ngaio Marsh spark which can make even a tedious book worth the time to read. Recommended, as I said, for Marsh fans. Readers new to her work should choose one of the novels from the 1930s through 1950 as a first experience.
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